Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Day The Earth Stood Still Blu-ray Review

The Day The Earth Stood Still Blu-ray ReviewWritten by Loys Johnson

Disc Size: 40.9 GB

Film Size: 22.8 GB

Video

The Day The Earth Stood Still comes to Blu-ray with a 1080p AVC/MPEG-4 video presentation. I was very impressed, especially when you consider the age of the film. The film has quite a bit of detail, and is overall very sharp. Black levels were very solid. The presentation isn't free of a few flaws such as specks here and there, but it's hard to complain with a film this old. 8/10.

Audio

A 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is included and sounded very good. Dialogue sounded quite clear, and the film's score sounded very beautiful as well. The film's score stayed a bit more front heavy, with other effects throughout the film making more of a surround speaker use. Overall I was left very impressed. 8/10.

Extras

Commentary by Director Robert Wise & Nicholas Meyer (Director, Star Trek II: Th Wrath Of Kahn)Commentary by film & music historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg & Nick RedmanIsolated Score Track (5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio)The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin (5:40) (HD)The Day The Earth Stood Still Main Title Live Performance by Peter Pringle (2:17) (HD)Interactive Theremin: Create Your Own ScoreGort Command Interactive GameThe Making Of The Day The Earth Stood Still (23:53) (HD)Decoding "Klaatu Barada Nikto": Science Fiction As Metaphor (16:14) (HD)A Brief History Of Flying Saucers (34:02) (HD)The Astounding Harry Bates (11:03) (HD)Edmund North: The Man Who Made The Earth Stand Still (14:43) (HD)Race To Oblivion: A Documentary Short Written & Produced By Edmund North (26:52) (SD)Farewell To The Master: A Reading By Jamieson K. Price Of The Original Harry Bates Story (1:36:56) (HD)FOX Movietonews (1951) (6:21) (SD)Teaser Trailer (1:04) (SD)Theatrical Trailer (2:09) (SD)The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008 Trailer) (1:47) (HD)Sneak Peek Of The Remake (7:41) (HD)Galleries

Blu-news Summary

Watching the film was a lot of fun, and I found it surprisingly enjoyable. The film has a lot of cheesy moments that did make me laugh, particularly when the crowd was walking but sped up in the intent to make them look frightened. The film is really great though, and despite it's cheesy effects, it has help up very well over time.

The Blu-ray presentation is fantastic in all departments, and will definitely show questioners how 'old movies' or black & white films can benefit from a high-def presentation. There are a ton of extras on the release, I was very impressed to see such an amazing effort from FOX on this release. Fans of the film, this is a 'MUST OWN', to all others I would say 'Recommended.'